


Fallout

by Bacner



Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: AU - Canon Divergence, Confrontations, Fallout, Gen, Hellfire Club, Inner Circle - Freeform, Inner Circle is morally ambiguous, Lorna Dane is a mom, Minor Spoilers, Team as Family, Tough Love, a messed up family, baby Dawn, pop culture references, post-No Mercy, to say the least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 16:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16622774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner
Summary: Rebecca has just killed a lot of people. Lorna won't tolerate it.





	Fallout

…The Frost sisters’ powers were always more of a telepathy/mind control thing rather than out-right precognition, but when Esme, (alongside Sage), came to meet the rest of the Inner Circle members as they returned from the bank heist, she realized that something was wrong immediately.

“Little Rebecca disobeyed Reeva’s orders, and killed the bank workers,” Phoebe opted to respond normally to Esme’s unspoken question rather than via telepathy, showing that she was more bothered by the fact that she let it on. “Including Reeva’s boo, it seems.”

“…Phoebe? How many times do I have to tell you – it doesn’t matter if Brittany Spears made this term popular, you’re not going to be using it; no one is going to be using it-“ Reeva’s voice began to approach a screech-like levels, indicating that Phoebe (and maybe Sophie with her) was talking about this for a while; a good distraction tactic, but with its’ own cost. 

“But I didn’t!” Rebecca had belatedly realized…something, and was trying to do damage con-trol, (not very successfully). “He was in the half of the witnesses that I didn’t, well, turn inside out?”

There was a pause, Reeva shot the younger mutant an unreadable look, and made a move to-wards the Inner Circle’s stash of booze. She pulled out a bottle and drank it as if it was Nestle™ spring water instead.

“We’ll address that at its’ own turn,” Lorna spoke with a perkiness that fooled no one. 

“Dawn is finally, and fell asleep only recently!” Esme matched her with an equally fake brightness. “So, uh, Lorna-?”

“Good, this is item 1 off the list,” Lorna whirled back to Rebecca. “Now, ‘Becca, do you know what you’ve done wrong?”

“Um, uh, I disobeyed a direct order and killed people? Well, flatscan people, but-“

“No but, if, or maybe,” Lorna’s fake-brightness was all-gone now. “We’re a family and a team, Rebecca, and Reeva is our leader, de-facto and de-jure.”

“But-“

“No but,” Lorna repeated sternly. “Yes, we know – her orders regarding her master plan per se are vague enough to be interpreted in any way, but regardless, let’s make it a default rule that unless she states it otherwise, there’s no murder, because we’re all lawful here, and don’t go killed unnecessary people all chaotic-like, willy-nilly? Understood?”

“Willy-nilly?”

“Understood?” Lorna refused to be distracted, but was rather all mama bear here, and not a very happy one. 

“Yes,” Rebecca looked away first, finding something endlessly fascinating on her shoes. “Lorna, Reeva, I’m sorry for disobeying your orders-“

“Good,” Lorna exhaled, and the tension released, some. “Now, uh, according to Andy, you’re Ramsay Bolton, some sort of a Killy McKillington who wants to kill everyone, and remain all by yourself-“

“I’m not! I do not!” Rebecca yelled, unnecessarily loudly, (nobody wanted Dawn to wake up here), but considering the desperation in the young mutant’s voice, no one wanted to call her out on it – not yet, anyhow.

“You mean you weren’t dominated and shaped by your parents, the only people you cared about?” Lorna asked brightly, seemingly unimpressed or bothered by Rebecca’s yell.

“Um,” Rebecca looked away again. “Did you read my file-?”

“No, we kind of figured it out on our own,” Lorna replied, reaching out and patting the younger mutant on her shoulder. “Andy may come across kind of obsessed with his online video games and TV shows, but he is more intelligent than how he looks and is better at reading people than how he sounds. So, Rebecca? No more disobeying your orders or playing with your food – we aren’t the – Boltons, right?”

Andy and Esme nodded. “Good, Now, ‘Becca? You are grounded…say, for the next few days. No coming out of your room unless it’s for training or something else mission related, understood?”

Rebecca glumly nodded. “Now go to your room,” Lorna nodded.

Reeva opened her mouth, as she realized that the electromagnetic mutant literally was in charge here, while Reeva herself was doing shots of a different kind, (sort of). “No,” Lorna said firmly.

Rebecca, who was leaving, stopped.

“Not you, Reeva,” Lorna sighed. “Look, uh, the fact is, you all-American Alligator? We need to fight now, it seems.”

Reeva blinked. “Why?” she exhaled; she would never admit it, but the other mutant did catch her flat-footed – intentional, probably, but still-

“Because your orders are loose enough, and vague enough, to be interpreted however one wants,” Lorna herself did not look or sound very confrontational herself, but rather about, as bad as Reeva herself felt. “Even John would have issues with them, and he’s the one who is chasing the deluded dream that the Mutant Underground are the new X-Men. They are not, and this is the reason as to why we are winning – yet. If they ever get their act together, then we’ll have problems for real.”

“You want to tell me anything else that I don’t know about?” Reeva asked frostily, as she was willing herself to sober up. Sadly, Lorna did not look very impressed with that, here.

“Honey, it’s not about the knowledge, it’s about the action and execution,” she replied with a look on her face that would be compassionate, if that state of affairs wasn’t ridiculous, right? “We get it, you hated the old Hellfire Club and all that they stood for, and you got rid of them – good for all of us – but you’re still flesh of their flesh and blood of their blood, and your methods are their methods – elegantly thought-out and aesthetically-pleasing plans via chess, and black-and-white colours, and what-not, and they work out fine, especially in stimulation pro-grams and what else have you…but real life doesn’t work like that, there’re always unpredictable variables, and Rebecca’s the one on our team. I hope that she will not take a hatchet to your plans next time we go to field, but regardless of whether she does or doesn’t, things will always go wrong and go messy, you follow?”

“Yes,” Reeva grounded: Lorna was not using any threatening moves yet, so Reeva could not just use her powers on Lorna yet. “What’s your point?”

“Nothing really; you’re one of us just as Rebecca is, and, uh, if you thought that this was the Order of Phoenix with you being Dumbledore, who was, like, a good guy and detached from practically everyone on his team, you’re wrong. Yes, you are the leader, since you are the one with the ideas and the plan, but you are on the same level as the rest of us too-“

“This is how leadership works!” Reeva snapped. “This isn’t how it is supposed to work-“

One of the triplets – most likely Phoebe – trotted over to Reeva and patted her on the shoulder. “Maybe not, but it does work regardless of everything.”

Reeva froze and looked as if she would abandon her normally collected composure altogether.

“Come on, Ms. Reeva,” Andy said softly. “The main reason as to why I got over my slump is because you weren’t emotionally detached but emotionally invested, and it worked. It worked on Rebecca too,” he nodded at the latter, who was doing her best to blend with the walls while listening to the conversation – unobtrusively. “We can get over this, if we don’t turn on each other instead first.”

“I’ll consider it,” Reeva looked away…and for the first time noticed that Lorna was subtly using her powers to keep a metal bottle cap not too far away from Reeva’s nostrils – clearly, despite everything, Lorna was going for a ‘speak softly, but carry a hard stick’ approach. Since the cap was close enough to do plenty of damage in a fight, Reeva decided not to notice it right now. “Now what?”

“We’re going to have a group-building exercise,” Lorna said with a wide smile that suggested that she noticed Reeva noticing the bottle cap. “Rebecca? You are still grounded, but are joining in, because we need to get debriefed and figure out where we are going from here. Got it?”

“Yes!” Rebecca said almost happily and joined the rest of the Inner Circle. 

‘This is really not how I expect our meetings to go,” Reeva thought to herself, as Lorna and the others led her to the Inner Circle’s common room. “I really need to work on it.’

‘Your plan concerning her is good,” Esme broadcasted to Lorna and Andy telepathically, ‘but we still need to work on it.’

‘Roger’, was the reply.

End


End file.
